Hello,

The flippers put terribly cheap carpet on the stairs that has already worn through after only 4 years. Upon pulling the carpet up on a few steps I see there are different years of repairs. Some old worn veneer, some 2x4s. The flippers did a terrible job with the stair molding, doesn't even match the steps and is quite wonky. They also added drywall where there is bead board under. My hope was to pull that all off and do simple pine treads from home depot as I have 14 steps. It does however seem that they may all be slightly different heights. Then under the stairs there are just block holding the treads up, one on each side. A few of those blocks have 2x4s underneath them for support I guess. My questions are A. does any one else have these blocks as the support without a middle spine and is that ok? B If yes, Should I just add some screws to the blocks and make sure they are secure and carry on with the treads? C Will regular stain with polyurethane coat be to slippery? D Stair molding...how hard is it to do? I've seen slim lined trim that runs up and down instead of the large piece with grooves in it-that seems simpler in appearance E. Should I pull that drywall up and see why they covered the original wall? If its damaged and I dont have any extra bead board in the house to patch, how hard is it to replicate?